By Sunil Gavaskar
Like South Africa, Sri Lanka recovered from the loss of their first game to log two impressive wins over the old powers England and Australia and thus make it to the semifinals.
Ideally, having beaten England in their league encounter, they should have been the number one team in their group and not England because both were tied on points, but the rule is to apply the net run rate and there England were better.
Sri Lanka were dismissed for a small total against New Zealand and that cost them as far as the net run rate is concerned.
Sri Lanka, though, are on a roll with those two wins and are looking very confident.
The most crucial thing is that Mahela Jayawardene is back in form.
He is a batsmen who can change the complexion of the game with the range of shots that he has in his armoury and the dexterity with which he employs them frustrates the opposition and makes them feel helpless.
In such a scenario, the batsman at the other end flourishes as the bolwers are scratching their heads trying to get Jayawardene out and so lose focus on the other batsman.
This is what great batsmen do and that’s how Sangakkara helped Kulasekara in that terrific chase against England.
The Lankan bowling depends on Malinga but Eranga has the extra pace and Kulasekara is mixing it up smartly, so it is not going to be easy for the Indian batsmen and then there is Herath, too, who can keep the batsmen quiet with his accurate spin bowling.
India will start as the favourites since their recent record against the Lankans has been very good.
They chased 333 in the warm-up game against the Lankans and did it with ease and overs to spare.
They are also high on confidence with the way they have combined and played.
The batting has been simply awesome with Dhawan and Rohit Sharma batting splendidly and giving the team an electric start.
Kohli and Karthik too are batting brilliantly and with the likes of Raina and Dhoni around India can hope for a big total or chase a big one too.
It is the bowling which is the cause for a bit of worry and in the death overs the Indians are leaking more runs than they should.
Bhuvaneshwar Kumar has bowled quite beautifully using the conditions well and Yadav and Ishant have had their moments but it is the spin twins Ashwin and Jadeja who have given the Indians the edge that other teams do not have.
Add to that the best fielding unit in the tournament and India look unbeatable on paper.
It is however on the field that matters and here they have to show that again as they have done so far in the tournament.